Tickets: $17-$275, available at Tropicana Field box office, Ticketmaster, raysbaseball.com, team Tampa store; $3 surcharge within five hours of game time.

Promotion:Joe Maddon Garden Gnome for first 10,000 fans.

Probable pitchers

Rays: RH Alex Cobb (2-1, 2.53)

YANKEES: LH Andy Pettitte (3-0, 2.01)

Alex the Great: Cobb is coming off a win vs. Oakland and is 9-2, 2.95 over his past 14 starts. Keys to his success are getting ground balls and strikeouts. He is 1-1, 3.15 in three starts vs. the Yankees.

Dandy Andy: Pettitte's 17 wins vs. the Rays are the most of active pitchers (behind Tim Wakefield, 21, and Mike Mussina, 19, overall), though he hasn't started at the Trop since October 2009. He seeks to win his first four starts for the first time.

Having a gnome version of himself as tonight's giveaway item seems to be quite an honor for Rays manager Joe Maddon. "You always aspire to become a bobblehead, but to become a gnome is even beyond expectations," he said. "That part of it truly is hard to wrap your mind around." The first 10,000 fans get gnomes. Gates open at 5:40.

Maddon's little buddy

For Tuesday's pregame diversion, Rays manager Joe Maddon went to the birds, having a cockatoo — a white umbrella cockatoo, to be exact — brought over from Sunken Gardens and into the clubhouse. Maddon paraded the bird, which is owned by P.J. Murray of St. Petersburg, around the room then had it perched on his shoulder during his pregame media session.

Quote of the day

"We had a lot of Marlboro cigarettes in the dugout."

Rays OF Matt Joyce, a former Tiger, on what things Detroit manager Jim Leyland brought in